1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates a medical image analysis apparatus and an image analysis control program, and more particularly to, a medical image analysis apparatus and an image analysis control program for creating parameter image data or the like on the basis of a motion parameter of a biological tissue obtained by analyzing time-series image data collected from a subject.
2. Description of the Related Art
Nowadays, a medical image diagnosis has been rapidly advanced due to the development of an X-ray CT apparatus, an MRI apparatus, an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, or the like put to practical use with the advance in computer technology. Accordingly, the medical image diagnosis is necessarily used in the recent medical treatment. Particularly, the X-ray CT apparatus or the MRI apparatus is capable of displaying the image data in real-time with an increase in speed and performance of a calculation processing device or a biological information detecting device. Also, the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus is capable of easily observing two-dimension image data in real-time just by simply contacting an ultrasonic probe on a body surface. For this reason, the X-ray CT apparatus, the MRI apparatus, and the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus are widely used for a shape diagnosis or a function diagnosis of biological internal organs.
Particularly, in the recent ultrasonic diagnostic field, a strain imaging method is developed which carries out, for example, a two-dimension observation of “strain” on the basis of displacement information of a myocardial tissue obtained by analyzing ultrasonic image data such as B-mode image data collected in time series.
In the strain imaging method of carrying out a heart function diagnosis, B-mode image data is collected in time series on the basis of a received signal obtained by an ultrasonic wave scanning on a subject, and “displacement” of the respective portions of a myocardial tissue is measured by applying a tracking process using a pattern matching with respect to ultrasonic image data adjacent to each other in time direction. Then, strain image data is created by calculating two-dimension distribution of “strain” defined as displacement by unit length.
Additionally, a method is proposed in which two-dimension distribution of “a strain speed” is measured on the basis of an inclination in space of a movement speed obtained by a TDI (Tissue Doppler Imaging) method of displaying a movement speed of a myocardial tissue in two dimension by the use of a color Doppler method, and strain image data is created by integrating “the strain speed” in time (for example, see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-130877).
Meanwhile, the strain imaging method using the X-ray CT apparatus or the MRI apparatus capable of collecting the time-series image data in a short time has been examined. Particularly, it is difficult to obtain strain image data of the four-chamber section or two-chamber section by the use of the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus because a propagation of the ultrasonic wave is disturbed by a rib or a lung, but according to the strain imaging method using the X-ray CT apparatus or the MRI apparatus, it is possible to easily create strain image data of the four-chamber section or two-chamber section.
That is, it is possible to create the strain image data suitable for a diagnosis by selecting the medical image diagnostic apparatus used in the strain imaging method in accordance with a diagnosis object and a diagnosis portion. Also, it is possible to obtain high precision by comparing and observing various strain image data created on the basis of the image data obtained from a plurality of different medical image diagnostic apparatuses.
However, in a case where the strain image data is created by analyzing the image data collected from the plurality of different medical image diagnostic apparatuses as described above, it is difficult to efficiently create the strain image data and to compare and observe the various strain image data with high precision because an analysis apparatus or an analysis algorithm is different depending on the type of the medical image diagnostic apparatus conventionally.